SA president quits amid allegations of misspending, misconduct, attempted fraud

Incoming Undergraduate Student Association President Jack Koscinski has resigned, following a letter from his fellow e-board members accusing him of inappropriate conduct, mismanagement of funds and attempted fraud.

Koscinski informed SA officials and The Spectrum of his resignation Tuesday evening, two hours after his colleagues issued the no-confidence letter. His last day was Friday, July 31. 

The letter, which was sent to university officials and SA senators on Wednesday, July 22, was provided to The Spectrum Tuesday evening by SA Treasurer Laron Fomby. It was signed by Fomby, Vice President for Advocacy Na’Dia Carter, Vice President for Clubs Pranavan Balachandran and Vice President for Events William Dong, as well as SA Chief of Staff Mya Glynn and Administrative Assistant Gabriela Paz. 

The writers said that when Koscinski was treasurer during the 2025-26 academic year, he refused to consider job applicants who “were members of a certain cultural club or fraternity,” and joked about firing student employees, and that alongside then-President Aisha Adam, he made certain staffers “uncomfortable” expressing “views that didn’t align with their view to make the Student Association a ‘pro-Palestinian’ organization.”

They also said that when Koscinski took office as president, he developed major projects without “adequate communication” with the e-board. As part of an initiative to install advertising TVs around campus, the writers said, Koscinski directed an SA employee to falsify data showing student interest in the displays in order to convince UB officials to approve the project.

The letter also cited unspecified “serious allegations of sexual harassment and sexually inappropriate conduct.”

In an email to The Spectrum, Koscinski denied all of the letter’s allegations, with the exception of the jokes about firing staff.

He said he made those jokes shortly after becoming treasurer in response to employees’ jabs about his young age, and that he stopped making the jokes and apologized in October 2025. 

“It was my first real ‘work’ setting and I was, admittedly, immature,” Koscinski wrote in an email. “I made a mistake, I apologized for it, and grew up.” 

As for the TVs, Koscinski said he had directed SA employee Marc Rosenblitt to ask UB what kind of data it would need to see in order to approve additional funding — not to falsify data.

Koscinski provided The Spectrum with a copy of the project directive he assigned Rosenblitt. The directive notes the need for “UB approval and space permission for each site,” but does not mention UB funding.

“I do not own a TV company. I do not stand to profit off of UB increasing the number of TVs on campus,” he wrote. “I am a student who wanted my peers to know about events.”

Koscinski said he had never heard of any of the other claims in the letter, and that he had not been notified of any investigation by SA or UB.

Instead, he said, he felt the e-board members wrote the letter in an effort to wrest power from the SA presidency.

“The current executive board has voiced ambitions and plans to reshape the entire structure of UB’s undergraduate student government,” he wrote. “While the senate and students are free to do that, tensions have primarily arisen because of the difference between what my By-law granted authorities are, and what this year’s board believes they ought to be.”

He said he and Fomby had gotten into an argument at a staff meeting last month, when he asked Fomby to leave the meeting and Fomby refused. A call Tuesday morning rehashed the events, where Fomby accused him of ignoring the rest of the e-board.

“I cannot lead people who are inherently discontent with the limits, nature, and functions of their role; and I won’t lead people who yell, curse, or otherwise make me feel unsafe at work,” Koscinski wrote.

The university told The Spectrum in an emailed statement that it is reviewing the allegations. 

“As always, we encourage students to report incidents when there is concern, and we are taking these matters raised by SA very seriously,” the statement read.

Business-class Amtrak tickets, group dinners 

Speaking with The Spectrum Tuesday, Fomby said he had launched his own review of expenditures approved by Koscinski and Adam last year, and found several cases in which he felt they had “acted in self-interest.”

He cited SA purchasing business-class Amtrak tickets to Albany for a SUNY Student Association conference, and a group dinner at the conference for which he said UB denied an initial purchase order because it included alcohol. 

SA records reviewed by The Spectrum show the student government spent $1,383 on seven round-trip Amtrak tickets for the SUNY SA spring conference, which was held from April 11-12. Adam and Koscinski rode in business class, the records show, while Dong — who was vice president for clubs at the time — and four other delegates traveled in coach. 

Koscinski, who is 6 feet, 6 inches tall, said he needed the business class seat due to his height, while Adam said she had respiratory issues and believed business class was more sanitary than coach, where she said she had previously become sick.

Adam said SA staff had questioned her about the more expensive ticket at the time of booking.

“It’s so disingenuous, because the professional staff have asked the same question,” she said. “We generally keep that within the organization, and I just feel it’s very disingenuous for Laron to paint it a certain way when he has access to information that suggests otherwise.”

Koscinski said SA would have upgraded any other delegate if they had a health issue, and that the cost of the upgrade was roughly $40 to $50 per passenger. 

SA records also show the organization spent $1,647.58 for three “joint-initiative dinner meetings” at SUNY SA conferences: a $480 dinner in November 2025, a $700.26 dinner in February 2026 and a $467.32 dinner in April 2026.

UB officials initially voided the purchase order for the April 2026 dinner over concerns that it would reimburse the three e-board members, who had already been given money to spend on trip expenses such as food, an email exchange between Koscinski and a UB Student Engagement official shows. The university ultimately approved a second purchase order that omitted those members.

Koscinski said there was “never any alcohol,” adding that most members on the trip were underage and that Adam, a practicing Muslim, doesn’t drink.

Adam said SA had passed its audit for last year’s expenses.

“If he wants to run independent audits, I guess he’s free to click into whatever spreadsheet and fill in the blanks for himself, however he wants,” Adam said. “We hire professionals to audit us, and we passed our audit.”

Matter ‘resolved’

After the SA e-board held an emergency meeting Tuesday evening, Fomby said SA’s legal team had advised him to cease talking to The Spectrum about Koscinski’s resignation.

He also declined to comment further on his ongoing review of expenditures or elaborate on the contents of the no-confidence letter.

“We will work to ensure that there are significant reforms to the student government to ensure reckless leadership is being held accountable and that students can remain to fully trust their elected student representatives to do their jobs according to their listed duties and responsibilities in the SA by-laws,” he said, reading a passage directly from the no-confidence letter.

The SA e-board has accepted Koscinski’s resignation and “consider the matter to be resolved,” its members said in a joint statement emailed to The Spectrum Wednesday.

“We look forward to continuing to serve our fellow students in the upcoming year and remain committed to operating with fiscal responsibility,” the statement read.

Carter will become acting president upon Koscinski’s resignation. SA bylaws require that the student government vote to select a permanent president within 28 days from the start of the fall semester.

Mylien Lai is the editor in chief and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com. 

---